Xenith Relit
by ScareyBear
Summary: Xenith (Iris Rivers) takes her place in the newly formed Avengers to battle an invasion that threatens Earth on all fronts, meeting new enemies and reawakening old hostilities.
1. Prologue

_One Year Ago_

"Sir, why did they restart the Avengers Initiative? You never told me."

"'They' did nothing. I relit the project because I think that we need the Avengers. The more heroes that keep popping up, the bigger and badder the bad guys will get. We need a way to deal with that."

"So, technically, it's still supposed to be on ice."

"Officially, it _is_ still on ice. And don't forget that, Agent Rivers."

"Mhm." Iris stared into her coffee cup. "So, so far Tony's on board with it, and Steve Rogers, Agent Barton, and Agent Romanoff are all on standby. Hank and Janet Pym have been staying out of the superhero scene but will jump back in if we need them to. I'm supposed to try and recruit the known superpowers Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Spider-man. I'm also supposed to see if I can get the X-men to agree to come to our aid if need be. I've already been told this. Why am I here, sir?"

Director Fury sighed. "Iris, about the New Mexico situation—I withheld information from you. I understand why you're angry. But we need to move on with this if you're going to be a part of SHIELD and the Avengers."

"You withheld the information because you were so afraid I'd try to _leave_ SHIELD and the Avengers. You can't use that to threaten me, Fury. And you're misreading my emotions. I'm unhappy, of course, but the way I'm acting isn't me being angry with you. This is just my new attitude. I made the little girl's mistake of trusting you, Fury. I'm just making sure that I don't make the same mistake again. Now _may_ I go?"

"Yes. Dismissed."

Iris gave a curt deferential tilt of the head before leaving Fury's office. He watched her go, before mildly saying, "good", with a note of appreciation.

"Good, sir?" Agent Coulson had just entered the room behind him, with a new report concerning Bruce Banner's whereabouts. "She lied to you, just now—she _is_ pissed. You think it's good to have a pissed-off psychokinetic telepath in your ranks?"

"You're making her sound more powerful than she actually is. But no, the good thing is that she's finally ready. She came to us a year ago with incredible powers; we honed them, and trained her, and shaped her into the perfect agent; but she finally took the last step. She's stopped trusting me. If the Avengers are ever going to work, they need to know how things happen here at SHIELD. And trust is something we can't have."

"You're taking this very fast, Director. How soon do you think we'll actually need the Avengers?"

"We really don't want that question answered, do we, Agent?"


	2. Chapter 1

Author's note: Hi! This is a continuation of my first story regarding Iris, which is called Xenith Rise. That one's not too exciting, so it's not necessary to read it, but I thought I'd make that fact known. And if any Xenith Rise readers are here reading this, I'd like to point out that I lied; I changed my mind at some point and Loki's going to show up here. I'd also like to point out that for most of the superheroes, I use the movie origins. I think that's all you need to know. Anyway, hope you enjoy this... drop a review if you've got time.

* * *

Iris took a deep breath and stared at the sky. Then she slowly began to lift herself off of the dirt path, into the air. She had been rebuilding her ability to levitate, despite the fact that it reminded her painstakingly of the incident in Colorado.

Two feet up and feeling stable, she looked back to the ground below, then raised her eyes to the heavens and shot into the air.

As the trees shrank away beneath her into tiny broccoli stems and the mansion became nothing more than a house of magnificent gingerbread, she laughed with exhilaration and realized two things: she was hungry, and she was ready. She spun around in midair, taking in the sprawling fields and wide blue sky, before letting a cool downdraft brush the hair out of her face and following the breeze back down to the path in the forest. Touching down lightly, she was grinning and buzzing with adrenaline, when a whistle came from behind her.

"You know, it's _amazing_ that anyone can do that. Sure beats making snowballs, anyway."

Iris turned around to find one of the mutants, Bobby Drake, leaning against a tree beside the path. He was still a student, but he was also one of the senior X-Men. She brushed a caterpillar off her sleeve, replying, "I think your power is great. But thanks, I guess."

"The Professor probably would've been pissed to think that he missed out on being your teacher."

Iris sighed and dusted her hands. She wished that she had met the Professor. But she hadn't. And it wasn't like she was going to be able to. "I'm pissed that I missed out on being his student. What're you doing out here?" She wasn't accusing; just curious.

"Walking. It's a nice day."

"Hard for it not to be, considering your head of school."

"Storm? She doesn't control the weather all the time. Just if there's a hurricane or something. Or if she's upset."

"Hmm." Iris pulled a stick out of her hair and waited for him to pass on. She'd finally gotten leave to return to the X-Mansion, which she'd been to only fleetingly towards the beginning of her nationwide venture. After meeting with superheroes to discuss the Avengers over the past year, she'd long since filled her quota and been put on standby. The mansion was a welcome change to SHIELD HQ, anyway, where she was constantly encountering Director Fury. Now she was honing her mental skills. Since two of the past mutants of Xavier's school had been psychics, she thought that taking some time there might be able to help her. Of course, both the psychics were dead. Iris made a point of looking into both their accomplishments and their mistakes. But Xavier's country manor was also a great place to unwind. And the best part? Every single other person there had superpowers. Compared to the real world, it was a relief to Iris whenever she saw someone teleport or heard them start speaking in binary.

"How'd you even get to be working for SHIELD?"

Snapping out of her reverie, Iris saw that Drake was still there. A second later she realized that he'd asked her a question. "Oh. Long story short, they saw me using my powers for a circus and adopted me."

"Wow. How old are you?"

"Twenty."

"Same. So do you go to college, or does SHIELD cover that?"

Iris saw that there was no getting rid of him, so she smiled. "SHIELD and online courses. So for you, does the mansion—" Suddenly, she frowned. "Sorry, Storm's calling me. I should go."

"What, do you have supersonic hearing?"

"It's called telepathic shouting. As long as I'm listening, I can hear it. Anyway. I guess I'll see you later."

"Yeah, see you around."

He watched her run down the path until she was out of earshot before saying, "Dammit, Storm! And come out, guys, I know you're there."

"Come on, Bobby," said Kitty, melting out of the tree next to him dragging Peter behind her. "If Storm's got something important to say, let her say it!"

"But right now? When I've finally broken the ice with Iris?"

Kitty raised her eyebrows. "Is it not working out between you and Rogue—I mean Marie—or something?"

Bobby turned red. "_That's_ not why I'm trying to talk to her. It's just that—Iris seems cool. But every time, at the mansion, there's something confidential and SHIELD-related going on. And she seems like kind of a loner. I've been trying to talk to her, but she's always busy."

"It's not like she doesn't have friends, Bobby," tossed in Peter. "At lunch, she was on her laptop, chatting away with some kids named Parker and Avery."

"Yeah, but, I mean—how many friends do you think she's got?"

Peter looked at Kitty, who looked down the path. "Come on, Bobby. Marie's been waiting for you."

"Hey, look. She's our age. She's just like a mutant. Why've you been avoiding her?"

Kitty started walking away from him, and Bobby turned to Peter, grabbing his arm and freezing him in place. "Hey! Talk to me!"

Peter looked after Kitty's retreating back, refusing to look at Bobby. "We're all just trying to be careful around her, because—remember what happened to Miss Grey and the Prof."

Turning his arm to metal and breaking the ice, Colossus ran to catch up with Kitty, leaving Bobby conflicted in his wake.

* * *

"You wanted to see me, Miss Munroe?"

Storm looked up from her computer screen. "You can call me Storm, Iris. And yes, I just received this report from Orlando and was wondering if you knew anything about it."

"Orlando? No. What happened?"

"Someone in Disney thought they saw an alien."

"Judging by the way some of those people dress—"

"And this 'alien' apparently killed everyone within a fifty-yard radius."

Iris hung up her coat and rolled up her sleeves. "Show me."


	3. Chapter 2

_Seven Months ago, Hell's Kitchen, New York_

Daredevil stared into the glowing orange web spread out beneath him. Not that he could tell it was orange, of course. But the bouncing soundwaves allowed him to 'see' that it was a street, and the subtle warmth emanating from it told him that it was glowing. He was able to figure out the color orange based off of previous experiences.

It was a quiet night, or as quiet as it ever got around there. It wasn't exactly a gentle neighborhood. But no confrontations. No snipers, or crime lords. No alien attacks, which seemed to be getting more and more likely. No, he was having a good day.

And he sure didn't want the woman sneaking up behind him to ruin it.

"I'm not sneaking," said the woman, causing him to freeze. "I don't think I'd ever try that on you. I'd fail miserably. I'm here to talk to you."

He turned around so see someone who looked more like a teenage girl than a woman. Although, it _was_ difficult to tell, as the top half of her face was covered by a mask. But there was a feel about her, the way she moved, the strength and speed of her heartbeat, that told him that she couldn't be older than twenty-five. The rest of her attire reminded him of a government agent, though he didn't recognize the sun emblem on the mask, or eagle sign on her sleeve.

"Who are you?"

"It won't be hard for you to figure out. But for now, call me Xenith."

"And just what are you here to talk to me about?"

"Kind of a lot. Want to sit down?"

Her heartbeat was completely normal. But there were plenty of people who could lay down a trap without so much as batting an eye. "I think I'd prefer to stand."

"Suit yourself," she said. "_I'm_ sitting down." He tensed as she came forward, but she only passed by him to sit over the building's edge. "So, Daredevil. How's it going?"

"Why are you here?"

"To the point, aren't you? Okay then, here's why I'm here: I'm a representative of SHIELD, which is Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Directorate. They sent me to inform you that SHIELD has been building a team of people, so-called superheroes, to deal with supernatural threats."

"A team of mutants?" He wasn't a mutant, but had heard plenty about them.

"Not necessarily. Daredevil, do you think that you're the only non-mutant with special abilities?"

"You know of any others?"

She laughed. "Well, there's me, for starters. I've got telekinesis, and limited telepathy. We think the X-gene _might_ have had something to do with it, but we really can't tell."

For a second, he was thrown. "Then how did you get powers? Do trucks full of—" he winced and silenced himself. "If SHIELD does any type of government experimentation—"

"My abilities have very little to do with SHIELD. But that's beside the point. The point is—you can do incredible things. And SHIELD could use your help."

"If you're asking me to sign onto some hero team, I actively try to avoid contracts…when I can."

"No contracts, sir. Just the willingness to come and help if SHIELD ever decides to assemble the troops."

He stared back out over the glowing city-scape that he couldn't see, and yet could see so well. "It's an interesting proposal, Xenith, but don't count on me being there. I meddle with things that concern me, or the people I protect. I'd never put myself at the beck and call of others."

"Then I have to give you part two of the info, sir. This team—it's here to deal with unnatural threats. _Anything _that threatens the populace that looks like more than the police can handle. That'd better not be you."

"Even if you say you have this 'team' behind you, Miss Xenith, you should know that I don't really feel too threatened."

"Well, then, you're an idiot, Mr. Murdock."

In an instant, he was on his feet and she was at the other end of the roof, perched on the edge. "Your secret's safe with me, Matt. Trust me. We'll act as police if we need to, but we're not the bad guys. Well, not usually. Anyway, here's my card," she threw a paper rectangle to the rooftop. "In case there's an invasion and you feel like dropping by."

"I am not Matthew Murdock."

"Suit yourself," she said cheerfully. "But I didn't even need to read your mind to know it. Or didn't you remember that I could?" She waved, and dropped from the rooftop. Daredevil didn't bother to look to see where she'd gone—instead he knelt down to pick up the business card.

_Xenith_

_Psychic swordswoman, SHIELD _

_Work phone: 777-722-8626_

_Member of the AVENGERS_


	4. Chapter 3

_SHIELD Headquarters, Present day_

"_—not from Asgard, Hill, there haven't been any electromagnetic storms since New Mexico. I don't know where that alien came from. Did anyone consider that it may be a bio-mutant, not extraterrestrial?_"

"Yes, but the problem is, it killed everyone and took out all cameras. We never got eyes on it." Agent Hill was swiveling around in her chair, tapping her stylus on the edge of the desk as she looked out at the New York cityscape. "We're looking into any recent suspicious biological experimentation that's been done recently. We've talked to Spidey, and he said that the Lizard is safely behind bars still, so it's not Connors."

_ "What about my dear friend LTD? I don't know why he'd come out of hiding now, but it could easily be him."_

"Nothing about this seems even faintly related to him. We have every reason to believe that he's dead, Iris."

_ "Yeah, doesn't that sound familiar?"_

"Haha. Come on, Iris, there was a big explosion and a pile of ash. You looked dead. And we still found you, didn't we?"

Hill could almost hear Iris smiling on the other end. _"Still found. Do you need me to come back in to HQ, or should I wait out here for further instructions?"_

"You're fine out there, Iris. Right now, we're still in tracking stage, and I think that Barton and Romanoff should suffice. Just… be ready. So hey, how's training going?"

_ "Same old. But it's helpful to have the Professor's books. Storm knows a lot about how Jean and the Professor trained, and she's using some of the same techniques on me. I also like being surrounded by other super-kids, even if they're all afraid of me."_

"If you wanted fear, you should have just stayed in Manhattan."

_ "No, they just—when they look at me and know I'm a psychic, they just think of Jean, is all. Jean and the Professor. You know what happened—"_

"Yeah." Hill's console started to beep. "Damn. I've got to go, Iris. See you if the world doesn't end before you come back."

_ "You're going to jinx it, Hill."_

* * *

Iris slipped the phone back into her pocket and went back inside. She'd just finished a session with Storm, who'd had to hurry off to teach her high-school seniors, and Iris was left to deal with SHIELD issues. That case with the alien—it scared her. She tried to pretend otherwise, but anything that could blatantly kill a courtyard full of happy families and then disappear into the wilderness was not to be taken lightly.

She was wandering into the school's entry hall when the sounds of an argument reached her ears.

"Stop being such a _jerk,_ Nathan!"

"_I'm _the jerk? You were the one making out with Greg behind the fountain!"

"I _wasn't!"_

"Yeah? Who _else_ has got pointed ears?"

"For your information, Tia has _always_ had pointed ears. Don't pretend like you don't know, I've seen you ogling her in bio."

"Ogling at how _weird_ she is. I talked to Greg, he said it was you!"

"Oh yeah, like _you'd_ ever talk to _him!"_

Iris could see two younger kids trying to study at a nearby table, looking up to glare at the couple having a blazing row at the top of the staircase. Then, one of the kids noticed Iris and nudged the other. They both stared at her for a second, frightened, until Iris pointed one finger at the arguing couple and raised the other finger to her lips. They watched as she slipped behind a pillar and screwed the top off her water bottle, then levitated the water and sent it up towards the roof. The two kids' eyes followed the water, watching as it came to a rest, hovering above the staircase. Iris let the water fall.

Coughing and spluttering, the lovebirds spun around to look at the foyer, only to see two students immersed in their work. Then they both started to blame each other, and, still arguing, they both stormed out to look for dry clothes.

The moment they were out of sight, both of the younger kids dissolved into laughter. The one who'd first noticed Iris looked back up at her, grinning, and she winked. Then the smile faded from her face. This kid—she'd never seen him before. But his hair was black and on the long side, and his eyes were green—a bright, startling, emerald green.

_She had to stop being so sentimental_.

She hitched the smile back up onto her face, and waved to them before making her way back to her room.

She thought that she was long since over her old boyfriend, but her problem was that she missed being so happy. Though she was happy, back on Earth, she could never be _as_ happy as when she was in love. Here's the thing—the guy that she'd been into. His name was Loki. They'd had a thing for each other. And then he went evil and tried to kill his brother and that was the end of that. Iris had kept right on going, focusing on her job, but she still kind of wanted to see Loki again—to see if he could still be saved, or to punch him very hard in the face, Iris wasn't sure.

Closing the door behind her, she levered open the window. Maybe she just needed to talk to her friends more. The problem with _that_ was that half of her friends didn't know that she was a SHIELD agent, and she couldn't tell them. The other half of them were friends only in superhero regards—they didn't know her civilian identity. The only people who knew both were the others at SHIELD—not necessarily her friends—some of the other Avengers who she didn't know too well, and then her sister and Peter Parker. Violet and Pete were usually busy saving people.

She crossed over to her laptop and clicked into Skype for the first time in months. There was only one person currently logged in. Iris smiled and hit call.

As it rang and continued to ring, Iris sighed. She started to check her SHIELD updates and almost didn't notice when Nick finally picked up.

"Hey, hey, the wallflower returns!"

Iris clicked out of the window to find Nick excitedly adjusting his webcam. He was one of the first friends she'd ever made in New York. At first he'd tried to ask her out, and even though she'd turned him down, they still got along just fine. He definitely looked older. He was taller, hair floppier. He had huge bags under his eyes, but he looked happy. "How _dare_ you disappear for so long. Iris, you do realize that it's been a year since you've talked to any of us?"

Iris thought for a second. Amidst searching the country for superheroes and her training, she hadn't realized. "Jeez, Nick, I'm so sorry. It's not like I don't miss you guys—it's just that I've been insanely busy recently." Then Iris winced. "Oh God, Lena is _not_ going to be happy."

"She's not. She's called Stark Industries several times, demanding to know your whereabouts. I think that she somehow managed to actually directly call Tony Stark."

"And how did he take it?"

"Stark offered her a job."

"No way!"

"He wants her to be his personal designer—everything from party clothes to Iron Man suits, believe it or not. I mean, how does Lena get so lucky?"

"Well there's that rabbit foot that she said she ate when she was three—that _could_ have something to do with it," Iris said, and Nick laughed. "So bring me up to speed. What's been happening lately?"

Since his moment of excitement had passed, he leaned back in his chair. "Not that much, actually. Lena is getting her degree in fashion design from FIT, Jewel's got an APPIC internship since she's back from Harvard for the summer. Chesh says that he hates business school, but he'll go with it. And Roth spends his time either making sushi or gaming."

"His job at the restaurant still going strong, then?"

"Yup. So, what about you? Anything that you can tell me that isn't Stark-Industries-Classified?"

"Only that clean energy will soon be coming your way. Nick, you didn't say—how are _you_ doing?"

His smile faltered, and he rubbed his eyes. "Okay, I guess. I got a better paying job, but it's just at another coffee shop. I haven't found any available journalist positions, and I've sent that book that I wrote to four different publishers, and none of them have taken it."

Iris winced. "There's nothing you can do but keep trying, Nick. Four isn't actually a lot. Just keep reworking and keep sending it in. And remember, I read it, and it was _great_."

"I guess I do have to just keep it up—I'm just so disgusted with my life right now. Except for my one bright spot, of course."

"Bright spot?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot, you don't know," Nick said, twinkling eyes clearly indicating that he _had_ remembered, but had wanted to save it for last. "Jewel and I are dating."

Iris grinned. "That's awesome! How long have you been going out?"

"Almost a year now, since about the time that you left. I should really be thanking you, Iris… you convinced me to move on, and when I did, I found something incredible. So how's it going with, you know—that guy that you were talking about?"

"Still waiting, but he's actually contacted twice, and I think that he should be coming back soon." It was probably the most blatant lie that Iris had ever told.

Nick looked like he was going to offer his congratulations when a beep issued from his laptop. "Sorry, gotta go. I've got a date." He stood up and grabbed the jacket off the back of his chair. "Me. A date. Even now, I just keep hoping that I don't screw it up. I never dated in high school."

Iris laughed. "Seriously? Seems hard to believe that you didn't get a lot of ladies."

"It wasn't getting them that was the problem—it was finding the right one for me." He leaned down into range of the webcam. "Iris, _please_ come back really soon. We all miss you out here."

"I'll try, Nick. Now, go have fun."

He flashed another grin before his video feed went black.

Iris sat back and sighed. Everyone back home was successful. Lena was living the dream—Jewel was going to Harvard—the others had steady jobs doing what they wanted—Nick was struggling, but he wasn't alone. Yes, Nick had a girlfriend. She could talk to them all whenever she wanted, and was surrounded by superkids, and was psychic, for God's sake.

So why was she still unhappy?


	5. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Sorry if the flashbacks are confusing, or slowing things down; the first part (volume, maybe?) of this story is meant to help as set up. The flashbacks will stop once it's over. Ta.

* * *

_Five Months ago, Harlem, New York_

Luke Cage reclined in his chair. He'd gotten word that some government official was coming to try and recruit him onto some team, and so had been relocating. He _was_ a hero for hire, but he liked action, and the heat of the moment. He didn't want some government busybody telling him what to do, and what not to do. Maybe he was a _little _interested… but not that interested.

He let out a huff of breath and poured himself a glass of beer, before there was a knock on his door.

"Mr. Cage, someone to see you."

"Better not be that government guy."

"Do I look like government?"

Cage looked up at the girl who'd just walked in the door, and was rendered speechless for a couple of seconds. Observing her from her tall black boots to her windblown hair, his first impressions were simple: clever, not-to-be-messed-with, and one _fine_ girl.

"No, sweetheart, you don't quite fit the picture." He stood up to shake her hand as she approached. "So to what do I owe the pleasure, Miss…?"

"Rivers," she said as she took his extended hand. "I'm Iris Rivers. And by the way, my previous question was rhetorical. For a man with your abilities, Mr. Cage, you're quite skilled at hiding from nosy government agencies."

She sat down and smiled disarmingly up at him.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"For a person who kids quite a lot, I'm actually not kidding at the moment."

Cage sat down, starting to chuckle. "Well, I'll admit, now you've got me interested. So, Agent Rivers. What've you got to tell me?"

* * *

Iris walked back to her hotel from Cage's office/flat.

"Hill, Rivers. Cage says he's on board. He seems like a nice guy."

_"Congratulations, Agent Rivers. You've just recruited your first Avenger."_

"Cool. So when do I get to meet Ant-Man and Wasp?"

"_I dunno. Next invasion?"_

"I'll be looking forward to that."

"_So I take it that you'll be heading to Queens next—"_

"Wait." Iris's head snapped up and she surveyed the street. She couldn't see anything, but something seemed amiss. Some ill-favored psychic vibe.

_"Iris…?"_

"Gonna have to call you back." She snapped the phone shut, quickly detaching the tops of her special-issue boots to make them shorter and more suited for physical work. Stuffing them into her backpack along with her phone, she pulled out her mask and SHIELD gear. She donned the mask and jacket, and put her hair back before clipping on her belt and taking to the rooftops.

A couple streets over, she found her altercation.

The sidewalks were a mess of screaming, fleeing people, as the road was occupied by a monstrous battle. Quite literally, monstrous. The first combatant was some creature, almost like a huge misshapen human, only adorned with spikes and with a wide mouth full of dagger-like teeth. It took a couple seconds before Iris recognized it—though she had no idea of how it'd escaped. Abomination. One of Hulk's enemies.

And the other combatant, well… he didn't surprise Iris in the least. She watched as the Abomination threw Cage fifty feet and into the window of the coffee shop beneath her feet, and kept watching as Cage got right back up and hurled a chunk of wooden support at his foe. Undeterred, the monster continued his approach.

Leaping down from the rooftop, Xenith kicked the monster in the center of its hideous face. It staggered back for a few paces, before facing forwards again to scrutinize its tiny new foe.

"Hey, Blonsky," said Xenith. "Do us all a favor and give it up before you get beat again. You're not doing anybody any favors."

He roared and tried to approach again before receiving two more kicks to the snout and a bullet to the eye. It didn't pierce his eye, of course. Xenith didn't expect it to. But she didn't expect that it felt too good, either.

He bellowed as he stumbled backwards again.

Turning around, Xenith saw Cage picking himself up out of the wreckage, surveying his new ally. "Your name wouldn't happen to be Rivers, would it?"

Xenith grinned. "Maybe. But you'll learn that we've got quite a crew of femme fatales back at SHIELD, Mr. Cage." She gestured behind her. "This is Emil Blonsky, by the way. He's got unbreakable skin, like you. Non-lethal strangulation was the last way that he was defeated."

She ducked the Abomination's clumsy swing and rolled off to the side.

Cage cracked his knuckles. "Thanks for the intel. Now, c'mere, you." As the Abomination attacked, Cage engaged, and Xenith watched in awe as the battle ensued.

Cage was astoundingly fast for a man of his age and stature. And he was strong. So strong. Instead of dodging all of Blonsky's attacks, which would have flattened Xenith completely, he was able to block them. And when _he_ punched Blonsky, Blonsky flew down the street, leaving gouges in the pavement.

However, Blonsky was quick to get back up, and Iris realized that in order to get him subdued, Blonsky was going to have to stay still long enough for Cage to land a direct hit. She couldn't put Blonsky to sleep—he was much too huge, tough, and enraged for that. But she could try freezing him. Freezing people in place hurt her brain. It was always the worst. It'd be even worse for a creature like the Abomination. But, as she watched Cage flying by her and Blonsky lumbering after—Bruce Banner was last reported somewhere in India. SHIELD backup wasn't going to do a thing. She might as well get the job done now.

Cage was shaking off the dizziness caused by the last trip he'd taken through a wall when he saw the Abomination lunging after him. He readied himself, and was surprised by the creature promptly collapsing to the ground.

Was Blonsky out? But no, when he looked closer, he could see the creature's eyes open, and all of his muscles straining to push himself back to his feet. Something, or someone, was holding him in place.

"Mr. Cage," came a strained voice from the street, and he looked over to see Xenith kneeling on the pavement, holding out her hands toward the Abomination. "I'd appreciate it if you'd attack him now."

_A psychic_? Cage was thrown for a second, but immediately saw that she was presenting him with an opportunity, and approached Blonsky to finish the job.

Once the Abomination was finally passed out in the middle of the street, Cage crossed over to Xenith, who was standing up with shaking legs. "You a mutant or somethin'?"

"Close, but no cigar. I was more of a lab experiment. The X-gene might have been involved, but I don't appear to have it. What I _do_ have are telepathy and telekinesis."

"Impressive. So you're with those SHIELD people too?"

"Yes. And we look forward to working with you again, Mr. Cage."

"You too, girl."

Xenith could easily entrust him with her secret identity, even though SHIELD probably wouldn't approve. They tried to keep that information contained. But hey, Cage was an Avenger now, right? Even if he didn't work for SHIELD officially.

No, not yet. She wouldn't say anything explicitly. But she wouldn't make it too hard for him to find out, either.

She waved to Cage and departed, pulling out her SHIELD comm. "Hey, HQ, this is Xenith. We just had a situation in Harlem, Abomination somehow got here? Cage and I took him down, but we'd appreciate cleanup."

Putting away the communicator, Xenith pulled off into an alleyway, pulling her bag to her from two blocks over and became a civilian again. She could see Luke Cage examining the Abomination as she exited the alleyway, and he looked up as she appeared. She waved again, and winked, and then slung her bag over her shoulder and made her way back up the street.

* * *

_Present Day_

Iris was facing a robot army.

It was the second one that she'd faced that day, but she needed practice. As they approached her, she either decapitated them with her swords, or caused them to short circuit by using her mind to mess with their cogs. Breathing hard as she fought to keep up with the flow of machines, Iris barely noticed the doors to the Danger Room slide open.

"Oh… you busy?"

Iris kicked one approaching bot into another and watched as their limbs tangled together in a series of sparks and explosions. "Just finishing up."

She dismembered the last drone and turned to face the large commander. Each robot had a different weak spot, and Iris probed around with her mind for a second before finding the commander's core. Right in the middle of the chest, underneath layers of armor. Armor that was probably supposed to be impenetrable. But was the X-Mansion Danger Room programmed to account for vibranium?

Iris leapt into the air and drove both of her swords into the commander's heart. They punched through its shell and shattered the core, and as Iris landed back on the ground, she watched as the robot keeled over and crashed to the ground. Chest heaving, Iris collapsed her swords and stuck them back on her belt. "What can I do for you, Logan?"

He was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching her silently. Finally, he nodded towards her swords. "Those things adamantium?"

"Vibranium. Almost the same thing. Computer, end simulation."

The piles of robot corpses began to disappear, and the roof and walls of the huge holo-room started to become visible again. She gave a satisfied smile, but looked back to see Logan staring at her katanas. "Why d'you use those things?"

"No particular reason. An old friend taught me and I never really dropped the habit. It's coordinating them with my other powers that's tricky, but hey, that's why I'm training."

"You know, I've seen you practicing, Iris. You don't want to push yourself too hard."

She pulled off her gloves. "I know why you're concerned, Logan, and I'm sorry to be so blunt, but my powers are different from Jean's. I don't have the X-gene. I never had someone like the Professor to separate my powers from my conscious mind, and so don't have any kind of dangerous alter-personality. I am me. And that's all."

He shrugged and pulled out a fresh cigar. "Sometimes you gotta forget what you think you know and go by your gut, kid. And no matter how you got them, you've got powers, and your mind is always trying to keep them in check. Don't overdo it."

She gave a humorless smile. "I'll see what I can do."

They were exiting the danger room when they heard a muted explosion and the floor started to shake like Colossus was using it as a punching bag. Iris grabbed the wall before she fell over, but couldn't see what Logan was doing before the lights went out and the hallway was plunged into darkness.

The shaking stopped as abruptly as it began, but the lights remained off. "Logan," she hissed. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," he grunted, and Iris could hear him picking himself off the floor. "What the hell was that?"

"How about we find out?"

Iris could see Logan, or his mind, anyway, and once she made it over to him, she led the way through the inky blackness.


	6. Chapter 5

_Queens, New York, 4 months ago_

Why did it have to be so dark?

Criminals _did_ like the dark, Xenith, amended. And this was where the drug deal was about to go down. She felt odd, as she wasn't there to stop it. She was there to talk to the people who _were _going to stop it.

She couldn't pretend that she wasn't nervous. She was glad that her gloves were hiding how sweaty her hands were; she didn't want her sister's first impression of her to be some moistened wreck. LTD's files had only recorded her as being a winged girl in Queens, with no record of name other than Violet. There were plenty of Violets in Queens, but only one girl with wings: the superheroine Archangel. Iris had been looking for her sister her entire life, and wondered if her sister had ever looked for her.

She heard crashing coming from the room next to her. _Here we go_.

Peering through the grate, Iris saw the huge, menacing men entering the room, with the Kingpin himself at the head. A second group was approaching the table from the opposite side, one of the lead men carrying a large crate. He thunked the crate down on the table and retreated, leaving his leader, a tall, thin man in a floor-length brown trench, to take the head position. The man flicked the crate open.

"You won't find toxins like this anywhere around here. Trunk's full, no false bottoms. Stuff's pure. Just toss me my fifty grand and we'll be on our way."

The Kingpin strode forward, and Iris stuck her tongue out in disgust. Aside from being cruel, Kingpin was bald and enormously fat, a combo that was not flattering at all when combined with his wide, flat face. He sifted through the packages in the trunk with the end of his cane—purely decorative—before nodding to one of his own thugs, who tossed a sack of money on the table. The first man took it and took out the bills to count as the Kingpin handed the trunk to one of his other lackeys.

His face immediately shifted to outrage as he looked back up. "This is half of what we agreed," he snarled. "You're gonna want to hand over the rest if you value your ugly—" He was pulling out a gun when five of Kingpin's men directed theirs at him.

The Kingpin leaned forwards. "You must be new in town, son. I'll tell you how this goes. We agree on a price. You do the job. You get what I think you deserve. And that's where it ends, unless you want to go the second route, which is to be shot to pieces by my men here."

The first man was shoving his gun back into its holster with a sour look on his face when a muffled voice came through the ceiling tiles. "You forgot a step, Kingpin."

Like idiots, they all stopped and stared at the ceiling, instead of running. The tiles on the first man's end exploded and a figure dropped down, though Iris couldn't get a good look at them through the dust cloud. Kingpin's end burst outward in a shower of spiders and dirt, with the largest spider being—not actually a spider.

"The step where we both come in and beat you. How could you forget about me? I thought we were friends!" Spider-Man looked genuinely hurt before kicking Kingpin in the jaw and knocking him out cold. Iris looked back over to the gang-leader's end to find a flurry of fists and feathers and stray bullets. The dust still obscured much of the scene, but Iris could see enough to know that the entire gang was getting the crap beaten out of them.

As was Kingpin's group. Spider-Man was neatly able to dispatch the entire crowd, and was brushing off his hands when his accomplice's voice cried out. "Behind you!"

He was turning around to see one of the thugs on the floor aiming a gun at him, before a winged figure came shooting out of the dust cloud and tackled him out of the way. The bullet missed both of them, and Spider-Man's friend had knocked the gun out of the man's hand in a second, before kicking him in the head and rendering him unconscious. "Isn't that what your spider-sense is for?"

Spider-Man crossed his arms. "Well, I'm _sorry_ if my powers aren't good enough for you, Ange."

She laughed and flicked a spider off of his uniform, and as they were both walking back to the center of the room, Iris got a good look at Archangel.

She was much like Xenith, same height, same straight black hair, although hers was cut extremely short and stuck straight up. Xenith couldn't see her eyes, as she was wearing a black mask with reflective lenses, but the overall shape of her face seemed to match. As her nickname implied, she was dressed in blacks and greys, with boots meant for combat and a loose, black costume draped to suggest an angel's gown and yet cut for maximum movement. She tugged at the grey unitard that she wore underneath as she kicked aside Kingpin's cane. "That guy creeps me out. I hope that they actually _try _to keep him in prison this time."

"They probably will. This would be kinda hard for them to overlook."

"Do you think we have to call the police on this one?"

"Yeah, I actually—"

He stopped abruptly.

"What?"

"My spider-sense is tingling."

Getting up from her grate, Xenith decided to do the most amiable thing that she could. She went to the door of the room and knocked twice. There was a moment of startled silence before Spider-Man's voice issued from within. "Uhh… who's there?"

"Xenith, representative of the government agency SHIELD. I'm here to talk to you and Archangel." She pushed open the door to find them both in defensive ready-stances. "But I thought I'd announce myself first so as not to freak you out. Can I come in?"

Archangel looked suspicious. "What are you doing here? How did you know we'd be here? And what's with the mask?"

Xenith was surprised at how they even _sounded_ the same. Apparently Spider-Man was too. "Whoa there. Never mind that. Are you guys related or something?"

Archangel looked at Spider-Man. "I've never met her before, wise guy. And you of all people know that my parents are—are—" She suddenly looked back to Xenith. "Who are you again?"

"I go by the codename Xenith, and the mask is to protect my identity, as you guys all know. I work for SHIELD, which is a government agency. I have telepathic and telekinetic capabilities, and I don't know who my parents are either. Well, at least not dad. But I do know that I was created in a genetic experimentation lab in Seattle. I escaped in a lab accident when I was seven, and I heard that I had a sister who escaped at the same time." She tried to say it casually, but in the seconds of silence that followed, she watched the other girl carefully.

The surprise was evident in Angel's face, but she remained calm, looking at Iris with new interest, but still suppressing suspicion, hesitant of whether or not to trust this newfound stranger.

"You know what," said Xenith, "screw SHIELD policy." She pulled off her mask and extended a hand to the Angel. "My name is Iris Rivers, and I think I'm your sister, Violet."

Apparently seeing Iris's face was enough. She took Iris's hand and removed her own mask, and even though Iris knew they were related, she was shocked to see herself reflected so clearly in another person's face. The same rounded half-girl-half-woman features, even if they lacked Iris's more active tan. Violet's orange-brown eyes exactly matched Iris's own, though they had a softer, more curious look, different from the passionate one that Iris tended to see when she looked in the mirror. "Avery. My last name's Avery. I'd heard about you—but I was starting to think that you didn't exist."

"There're a lot of things about ourselves that we don't know."

They stood there, surveying each other, until Spider-man came up between them. "The sexual tension in this room is becoming unbearable." Then he looked at Iris's face. "Jeez, you could be identical twins if Vi weren't half-starling."

"I'm _not_ a starling," glared Violet. "And Iris, how did you know who I was?"

"It's a…long story. Want to talk about it over coffee?"

"Sure thing."

Spider-man chimed back in. "Can I come?"

Iris looked at his bright costume. "I don't want to attract any unwanted attention."

"I can do that." Iris nearly had a heart attack when he easily pulled off his mask and held out a hand to shake hers with. "Peter Parker, photographer for the Daily Bugle. I normally wouldn't tell anyone, but if you're Vi's sister, then whatever's good."

"Nice to meet you, Peter."

"Call me Pete."

* * *

Violet gave Iris the basic outline of her story, talking about how she'd only made it a few miles out of Seattle facility before being taken in by a foster home. She'd made a good bit of money by selling the equipment that she'd had attacked to her back, monitoring the growth of her wings. After it was taken from her by the owners of the foster home, who didn't really give a damn about kids, she'd stolen it back and decided to jump the state. Odd jobs, sleeping in streets, sleeping in hotels, sleeping in literal holes in the ground, she walked until she reached the other side of the country. She'd learned to live as a drifter, how to charm people in to giving her jobs, what forest plants were _not_ edible, the values of computers and internet.

She'd also discovered a second power; she had the ability to heal. Not herself—_she_ was completely on her own. But she could transfer her own energy into others to help their bodies mend themselves faster. "The thing about that, though, is that it drains my energy, proportionately. If I heal a cut or something, I might get hungry. If I straighten someone's broken limb, I'll need to sit down for a while. And if it's something like stabilizing internal bleeding, I'll probably pass out. So I only do it if I have to."

Once she was in Queens and had gotten herself enrolled in the high school, Peter had helped her adjust to normal life. He didn't know _why_ she needed help until she decided to become Archangel, and they simultaneously discovered each other's secret identities. Then he'd gotten his aunt to house her until she could afford her own place.

"…and I recently earned my M. F. A. in Art School. I have a website where I sell art and a blog discussing Shakespearian literature. You said you work for government?"

Iris had checked the area for bugs and was keeping tabs on everyone who might be listening in on them; the area seemed safe enough. "Yeah. SHIELD. I'm not going to tell you what it stands for, that'd take too long. We deal with mostly covert operations, but also deal with super-humans, and they've recently been trying to get a team together."

Peter stirred his coffee. "Are we talking about mutants, here?"

Iris shook her head. "People keep asking that. But there happens to be kind of a lot of superhumans out there. I can't tell you more until I've heard that you're in or out."

Violet was drawing a majestic eagle on her napkin with one hand while swirling her mocha with the other. "Sounds like fun to me. Pete?"

"Please tell me there's money involved."

"Um… it's really a voluntary non-profit organization."

"Shit." He pouted for a second, before shrugging and chugging his coffee. Setting it back down on the table, he shrugged again. "I'll do it."

"Don't feel pressured to—"

"Nah, I like to help. But I don't make a whole lot. Not like Little Miss Classical over—" he looked down as Beethoven's Fifth started issuing from his buzzing pocket.

Violet grinned. "What were you about to call me?"

"Shut up." He got up and started walking towards the door. "Hello? Oh, hey, MJ. Yeah, dinner's still on. Wait, it's—already?" He looked at the clock and quickly started walking back towards the table. "Yeah, see you there. On my way now." He slid the phone back in his pocket and snatched up his coat. "I gotta go. Great to meet you, Iris. Feel free to drop by whenever you're around, and give us a call whenever they assemble the troops." After having fumbled with the zipper for a few seconds, he'd snatched up his coffee cup and raced through the door, leaving it swinging lazily in its wake.

The two remaining girls turned back to face each other at the same time, and tried to think of something to say to the other. After a few seconds, Violet turned back to her eagle napkin, and Iris started trying to see how far apart she could stretch her fingers.

Violet finally folded up her drawing and stuffed it in her pocket, looking up. "How much do you know about mom and dad?"

Iris opened her mouth, closed it again, looked around, and leaned forward. "Do you have somewhere more private where we can talk?"

* * *

"Lucas Toverdokter? What kind of a name is that?"

"Dutch." Iris scrolled through the file, pausing halfway down the page. "His father Hendrik was experimenting with genetics and started our program. But by the time Lucas had turned six, his father decided to try experimenting on him as well."

Violet looked disgusted as she opened the curtains to illuminate her flat. It was a nice place, albeit cluttered—easels and books and tubes of paint were scattered everywhere, with only a few clear paths to traverse. She looked down at the street, twenty stories below. "Why would he experiment on his own son?"

"Lucas had a birth defect. A weak heart. Hendrik never told him, because he wanted his son to live life happy and free, without the constant fear of death. But he came across the DNA of a certain creature that he thought might make his son strong enough to live."

"Through genetic splicing?"

Iris nodded. "But we still don't know where the hell the creature came from. Or who could have created it—"

"What was it?"

"As far as we can tell… a dragon."

Violet raised her eyebrows. "He spliced his son with a dragon."

"He was meticulously careful to only activate the genes for stronger muscles, which would strengthen the cardio-vascular system. He just didn't know that this dragon wasn't—wasn't like most other organic beings. The DNA acted like a virus and infected Lucas, giving him reptilian traits—"

Violet's eyes widened. "Like Doctor Connors—"

"—and the ability to breath fire."

The artist let out a stream of breath. "How old was he again?"

"Six. He went crazy and killed everyone in the facility, including his own father. Hendrik could have reversed the process, but his son wouldn't let the man anywhere near him. After everyone was dead, he stayed in the Seattle lab, and got rid of most of his dad's projects, except for the most interesting. Ours and our mother's." Iris saw Violet open her mouth, but stopped her. "She's dead. She died a while back. She went by the name of Angelika Kilmer. I still don't know the truth about why she was chosen to join, or chose to join Hendrik's project. But after her eggs were harvested for the experiments and we were synthesized, something happened. She figured out that Lucas had some sort of plan that wasn't going to end well—"

"Which was…?"

"In a minute. But she caused a massive disturbance at the facility when we were seven and let us escape."

"And so after that, Lucas—"

"Killed her. Yes."

Violet rubbed her chin, the same way that Iris did when something bothered her, but she didn't know how to respond. "So what was this corrupt plan of his?"

"He started out just wanting to build us into a hero team. He wanted to collect superheroes worldwide and create a protective organization, like the Avengers. But he was prepared to use unnecessary lethal force, against opposing heroes, villains, governments—anyone. When I encountered him last summer and told him that I didn't want to be a part of it, he tried to use the same force on me."

"You haven't heard since?"

"His lab was destroyed. We couldn't find his body. They tried to convince the agents at SHIELD that he's dead, but Fury's not that naïve. And yeah, haven't heard since."

"So what gave mom her power? And what do you know about dad—or our dads?"

Iris was rubbing her chin before she became aware of the fact and put her hand down. "We don't actually know. I don't even know exactly what mom's powers were. I couldn't read Lucas's mind, so I don't know what was the truth. But since we don't have the X-gene, I'm going to guess that his theory was his real theory—that she was the next step in mutation. Meaning that she didn't have the X-gene—she had something even more advanced. And as for dad, well… we don't have one."

"Say what?"

"Lucas was very specific about that. He assembled our fathers' genes by picking and choosing from a gene bank. Half of us comes from flesh and blood, the other half is basically a 'genetic junkpile'. If you want to call anyone our father, you could say it was Lucas, if he weren't only five years older than us and it weren't weird."

"It's not that weird, when you think about it," said Violet as she shrugged and poured fresh tea for herself. "Do you know about Oedipus Rex?"

"No?"

"Ah. Good."

They both sipped tea to avoid talking to each other, but Iris still wanted to know about Violet. Her passions, her adventures, who she was. They were sisters, yet they were anything but. She finished her tea and sat in meditative silence for a few seconds before breaking it. "So, Pete and MJ. Nice to know he's got someone. What about you?"

A shadow crossed Violet's face, and Iris immediately regretted the question. But at least that made two of them. The cloud soon passed on from Violet's visage, leaving a smile in its wake, but the curve of her lips seemed unnatural. Forced. "Nope. Never really into that kind of stuff. You?"

"Nah."

"Really?"

Iris's eyes narrowed as she looked back up at Violet's skeptical face. "I'm sorry, based on your response, I thought we were keeping secrets at the moment."

"Do they merit keeping?"

"I don't know. Do they?"

"Since it involves an ex, I think yes."

"An ex? You think I don't know about that?"

They stared each other down for several moments before Violet sighed and drained her mug. "The guy I liked died. He was dying, I was there, and I tried to save him with my powers. I went into cardiac arrest, and it still—it still wasn't enough."

Violet's eyes weren't sad or tear-filled; instead, they were uncomfortably blank and staring, looking at Iris, and yet past her, through layers of mist-filled history to the dark shadows that spelled out her past.

Iris was shocked, and recoiled at her own tactlessness. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. You didn't know. And I don't know what it would be like in your situation, so really—"

Iris shook her head. "No, your case is way worse than mine."

In order to avoid another awkward silence, Violet took Iris's empty cup and carried it over to the sink. "Seriously, it's cool. And it's passed. Water under the bridge, you know?" The stream running from the tap illustrated her point for a few seconds before she shut off the flow. "You're welcome to crash here tonight. If I leave in the middle of the night it's because something's come up. You'd be welcome to tag along, except it's kinda hard to get around here without the ability to fly."

"I get it. I'll just stay here."

Later, Iris lay on the woven couch, clutching the fuzzy blanket more tightly around herself as she stared out at the glowing cityscape. Though the apartment was dark, there was so much light streaming in through the windows that Iris had to get up and close the curtains, before feeling her way back to her makeshift bed. She listened for a moment to see if she'd woken up Violet, but heard her sister's normal breathing issuing from the other room and realized that she wasn't asleep yet.

She lay on her back and stared into the blackness above her. "Hey, Vi?"

"Yeah?"

Iris noticed that she didn't protest the use of her nickname. "Thanks."

"No problem, sis."


	7. Chapter 6

Author's note: I'm slowing down production of this because I'm still trying to write things. In the time it's taking me to post this, I'm writing a second story. In the time it takes to post that, I'll be writing the next portion of Xenith Relit. Sorry/thanks to those of you who have read this far.

* * *

_Present day_

Iris and Logan had just climbed up the elevator shaft, and she forced the doors open to a scene of chaos and flame. Heaving herself out, she covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve, and whirled in confusion as dark shapes darted through the raging fires around her. She finally recognized a figure who was walking backwards from the end of the hall, freezing everything that he could, and ran over to him.

"Bobby!" she yelled. "Bobby, what's going on?!"

"We're under attack!" he screamed back. He pulled her out of the way as a chandelier crashed to the ground. "Storm's trying to create some thunderheads to put this out, but you have to help everyone evacuate!"

"What about the attackers?"

"Hank and Warren're outside, Logan can you go and help—"

"Already on it, kid!" As he ran through the smoke, Iris could see him unsheathe his claws.

"How much of the mansion has been evacuated already?"

"Lower three floors. Word wasn't as fast to spread to the upper two."

"On it."

Iris knew that the flaming staircase was no longer an option, and leapt back into the elevator shaft. Clinging to the cable, she ran up the wall until she was at the top floor. She pried the doors apart to see that while the top floor wasn't yet overrun by flame, it was full of smoke.

Iris ran towards the sound of coughing, turning the corner to find a cluster of kids backing away from the fire raging up the staircase as the walls and floor around them began to catch fire. The sprinklers were either malfunctioning or had been sabotaged, because they remained dormant on the ceilings as the air around them filled with dense black clouds.

"Hey!" Iris shoved the smoke aside, and they turned to look at her with fear that was half from the fire, half from her approach. "The elevator shaft's clear! Anyone who can do ropes, climb down the cable. If you can take a younger kid with you, do it. If you can fly or stick to walls, do it! Just get down there and take as many people as you can!" Iris picked up the youngest girl, who looked to be around eight. "Keep below the smoke line if you can, and keep the windows shut! Move it!"

After getting the kids started down, she ran through the top floor, checking the rooms for any signs of life. As she started to near the end of the hall, she could feel someone's presence. Then she started to hear it—a boy crying. She darted through one of the rooms and entered a second to see a broken window and a mutant child cowering in the corner.

Even with her muddled senses she was able to detect the hit before she received it, and spun around to take out her attacker with a blow to the jaw. He was clothed entirely in black, and Iris suddenly thought back to one of the stories Bobby had told her. The mansion had been under attack, like this, though the enemies hadn't been trying torch the place. But they'd come for the mutant children. To take them for experimentation.

She ran forwards and grabbed the child. "Come on, up you get. We're getting out of here." She led him by the hand back to the door, but when she opened it, the room that she'd just passed through was ablaze. She pulled the kid to the ground as the fire shot towards them, drawn to the oxygen streaming in through the open window. The entire floor was on fire, but Iris could hear commotion outside, and knew that it wasn't safe to lead the child that way.

She wrapped him in her arms and said, "Hold on," before levitating off the ground and shooting through the room.

They crash landed in the hallway, and Iris quickly rolled over and over to extinguish the flames that had begun to spread across her head and torso. Her eyes were watering, skin searing, but she gathered up the child and ran back to the elevator. Colossus was there—he must have climbed up the shaft—and was ushering the last kid down.

Iris quickly handed him the boy. "Get him to safety. Is the next floor cleared?"

"Kitty's down there. The flames can't touch her, but she's having a hard time seeing anything."

"I'll help her finish up. Once the kids are in the escape tunnel, you need to help Hank and Logan get rid of the invaders."

"Who are they?" As he took the child, Iris could see despair and frustration plastering his face.

"I don't know," she said, grabbing his shoulder. "But they're here for mutants, and we're not going to let them get any. Right, Peter?"

A shudder of psychic energy ran down her arm, and she saw his eyes flutter for a second, his racing pulse slowing down a bit. "Right. Keep Kitty safe, will you?" He climbed into the shaft, and a moment later, Iris swung after him.

The fourth floor was completely on fire. Iris's boots were for the most part flame retardant, but she wasn't going to be able to make it very far without catching fire. She used her powers to push the flames aside as she ran forward. "Kitty!"

The girl popped out of the wall next to her. "Iris! What are you doing here?"

"Making sure this floor's completely evacuated. Did you find everyone?"

"I've gone through all the rooms, but I'm having a hard time seeing anything—"

"Halfway down the hall, on the right, two kids are passed out," Iris said, scanning around. "That's all I can tell."

"All right, I'll handle it. Get out of here!"

"Why hasn't Storm gotten those clouds yet?"

"I don't know, but it can't be good!"

Kitty ran diagonally back into the wall shed come from while Iris ran back to the shaft and descended to the first floor.

After the chaos of the levels above, it was surprisingly calm. Everything was coated in ice, except for a path that led to the evacuation tunnels. She could hear a commotion from outside, where a battle was raging, and was racing to join when she caught of Colossus doing the same.

"Hey, Peter! What are you doing?"

"Going to help fight!" He turned his arm to metal and slammed it into the ice, creating a sizeable hole.

"Who's watching the kids?"

"The tunnel's a secret and they know what to do! They can handle themselves!"

With that, he ran out onto the lawn.

Iris was torn, but did what she deemed best and ran farther into the mansion. Finding the panel that led to the secret hallway and slamming it open, and she entered to hear the patter of feet running quickly, recklessly, down it. A moment later, she heard guns cocking and yelling voices. She sped up, but hadn't yet reached the hatch when she heard three reports. Iris's heart leapt into her mouth as the shots reverberated down the tube.

She emerged from the tunnel to the dense greenery of the woods, where the children were huddled down, surrounded by invaders. Three of the kids were on the ground, two guys and a girl, who looked like they'd resisted and been punished. But not just punished. They were lying still. Too still.

And another henchman was aiming his gun at a fourth.

In a flash of silver, Iris had opened both swords and sent one of the blades hurling at the man's chest. He had a moment to look up in surprise before being impaled and nailed to the pine tree behind him.

Iris could feel her rage building, and she barely even noticed as her powers spiked ant the invaders' weapons started to implode. She brought her sword flying back into her hand. "Any of you b******* so much as touches another one of these kids, there's going to be hell to pay!"

The lead man didn't even hesitate before dropping his gun and drawing his knife. His thoughts glared out at Iris, and she saw him reaching for one of the other mutant children before his body even performed the action, trying to obtain a hostage that he never would.

Because all of Iris's fury poured forth and she hurled herself into the ranks in a whirling frenzy of silver and death.


	8. Chapter 7

"Jesus…"

"The rest of the kids are safe and being watched, Logan?"

"Yeah. But I mean, Jesus… look at this mess."

"I wish that the children hadn't had to have seen it."

"_I'm_ glad that I didn't see it. Is there a single person here who's still in one piece?"

"Well—Iris."

"Yeah, Storm, I kinda get that. Bobby, how's she doing?"

"I think she's waking up."

Iris had been sorting out all the chattering voices flowing through her head, but could still barely understand what she was hearing. She tried to open her eyes as an alternative, and was nearly blinded by the sunlight coming down through the trees. She gave a small groan and tried to turn away from the light, but her hand connected with something sticky and lumpy. She drew her hand back and found it red.

Before she could move again, she felt someone grab her shoulders and try to sit her up, and immediately jumped and tried to disengage her attacker. However, she was still muddled and the figure only grabbed her by the wrists and held them back.

"Kid! Kid, it's just me. Everything's okay. You're safe now. Can you hear me?"

Iris blinked several times and the world finally snapped back into focus. Logan's eyes were a foot away from hers, and he was holding her arms away from him, expression a mix of concern and apprehension. She quickly slipped out of his grip. "I'm fine. I'm sorry, I just—what happened?"

He stood up and pulled her to her feet, nodding behind her. "See for yourself."

She looked back to find a scene of utter carnage. The entire platoon of enemy soldiers was scattered on the ground under the trees. Literally. Most were missing limbs, heads. The ground was drenched in blood. Iris looked down at herself to find matching red spatters staining her from head to foot.

She started to remember. The children. The children who were shot. The men who wouldn't stand down. She had moved in for the attack. She thought that she'd been doing a cleaner job, but Iris guessed that she'd been carried away in the heat of battle. She could vaguely remember passing out once the battle was over. She hadn't thought about what the X-Men would say—she'd simply acted. But the part that scared her was that she couldn't remember it. She twitched her fingers, and her katanas flew back into their sheaths. "I'm sorry if I scared you, or the other mutants. They were killing the children. I was protecting them. I don't really know what happened, I just...reacted."

"We know," said Storm, who Iris saw move forward from her position behind Logan. "It's okay. We found the kids who were shot. And we've all killed before to defend the students. We were more worried about you. We came back and you were passed out on the ground. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just tired, I guess." Iris noticed that Storm's arm was being held in a sling. "What about you?"

"Me? I'm fine. I was taken out of action for a little while, which was why I couldn't get those clouds. But I got off easy."

Iris collapsed her swords and stuck them back onto her belt. "How many did we lose?" she asked quietly.

Storm grimaced and opened her mouth, but closed it again, and Iris was surprised to see her eyes were filled with tears.

"Seven," supplied Logan. "All students. Most of them weren't supposed to be fighting. Three of them weren't even twelve yet."

Iris stared at the three of them, Storm holding a hand over her eyes, Logan with a face full of hatred, Bobby with his eyes fixed on the ground. She looked back at the pile of corpses that she'd left behind, and felt a whole lot better about it.

"Let's go back to the others. You can tell me what you know about what happened on the way there."

Bobby looked up. "What about… uh… these guys?"

"They don't deserve our concern."

* * *

Iris got the full story from the rest of the X-Men. The first that they'd heard was the sound of choppers approaching. Storm said that she'd expected it to be a single vehicle, maybe flying over for a news company or something. But as she started to hear more, she'd sent them a message, asking them of their intentions. She'd gotten no response, until a missile had been sent crashing through the mansion's front doors from a mile out.

After that, the fires had started. Storm had sent people to evacuate the other students before the invaders had started their ground attack. After that, she'd pulled aside a few of the X-Men she'd had at hand and had gone to confront them. She couldn't see any particular leader. Just plenty of the black clothed troops who seemed to have an interest in mutant children.

"So none of them looked like a leader?"

"One of them seemed to be acting as captain, but he looked the same as all of the others." Bobby pointed at the pile of bodies next to the group of unconscious enemies. "Logan took him down."

The mansion was in ruins, the outside burnt to a crumbling crisp and the dorms collapsed, lying in ashen heaps between a twisted and blackened framework. Only the classrooms remained, having been frozen solid by Iceman's quick thinking. The fires were out, and many of the students were wading through it, looking for anything to be salvaged. The rest were sitting on the lawn, shivering in their wet pajamas. Iris wondered just how hard the X-Men were taking it. They stood in front of ruined manor, surveying it with a tactical eye, as if decades of education and evolution hadn't just crumbled in front of their eyes.

"Storm. What are we going to do now?" Iris looked around at the trees, tiger-striped with sunlight and shadow. "We need to get these kids to safety."

"Iris, we don't know what we're going to find when we get out of here."

"Find? What do you expect to find?"

Storm was staring blankly at the mansion, but her face was hard. "This might not have been a solo attack. SHIELD hasn't contacted us; no one has. Even after we called."

"The attackers might have taken out the nearby cell towers and cut the landline. My SHIELD comm can make it through anything, but I didn't take it with me to—" Iris faltered as Storm drew the earpiece out of her pocket.

"I've been trying to make that thing sing for the past five hours that you've been out. See if you can get it to work." She tossed it to Iris. "Other than that, we'll see if any of the lower levels are undamaged. We'll salvage anything possible, send out a scouting party, and then start the trek towards town." Storm looked at Bobby and Logan. "Objections?"

Logan shrugged his acquiescence. Bobby nodded. "I'm cool."

He saw Iris biting her lip and added, "Shut up."

Kitty's voice suddenly rang out through the still morning air. "Storm! Over here!"

They all ran to the origination of the cry to find Kitty, Colossus, and two mutant children standing in a hole they'd cleared in the ash. At its base lay a metal hatch, flung open to show the darkness within. Their way downstairs. Without further ado, Storm grabbed onto the sides and lowered herself in, with Bobby and Logan following closely behind.

Iris decided to let the X-Men handle their own territory and busied herself with trying to get a sound out of her SHIELD comm. She'd been fiddling for a half an hour before Storm floated back out and Logan clawed his way out behind her, both in full uniform. Iris surveyed Logan trying to move in the material. It looked uncomfortable. "What's the sitch?"

Storm landed delicately on the grass. "Basement is almost completely untouched, but the power is off and so Cerebro isn't functioning. We pulled the uniforms and some medical equipment from down there, and Bobby's bringing the jet up."

"How can you open the hangar bay without power?"

"The professor designed it to be able to do so, for situations like this. We hit the manual override, and it should—" the ground shuddered, and they all looked at their feet. "Well, that sounds like him now."

They collectively shifted their gazes to the basketball court, where the pavement was retracting to reveal a pit beneath. And from that pit rose the famous X-Men blackbird. Onyx shade, sleek, flawless in design—Iris was impressed, but thought that Tony Stark could definitely make it better. Bobby put the jet down on the lawn and lowered the ramp while Storm assembled the X-Men. Hank, Peter, Kitty, Bobby, Storm, and Logan were the only senior ones left. Warren and Kurt were newer. Iris wasn't an X-Man, but she was there anyway, and spoke first. "So who's going where?"

Storm looked over the group. "Kurt, I'd like you to take Kitty and Angel in the Blackbird and go find the Professor. Protect him. Try to reach SHIELD, if you can. The rest of us will go on foot into town to look for aid."

Nightcrawler nodded and disappeared in a puff of black, Angel and Kitty following in the more conventional fashion. A moment later, the Blackbird lifted into the air and took off over the trees.

"All right, Bobby, Pete, get the kids up. Hank and Logan, if you could go help carry the supplies that they pulled. They aren't going to find anything else in there, so we might as well get going."

Dr. McCoy was stroking his chin so vigorously that he had begun to pull out hair. "Storm, you don't think that we should just send a few of us to town? We'd be risking the lives of the students—"

"Either we all go or none of us go." Storm looked over the smoking skeleton of the mansion. "We lost seven kids, Hank. Luckily Bobby saved our resources, but the only thing we can do to save lives is to stick together. We're not splitting up any more than we have to, and that's final. We're going to travel south until we make SHIELD contact and see if we can't get our kids housed and see what the hell is going on."

He inclined his head, and as they moved off in their separate directions without a word, Iris looked awkwardly after them. "So what do you want me to do?'

"First of all, I got you a uniform. Thought you might appreciate it since yours got toasted." Storm tossed her one of the black X-Men suits, and Iris hesitated, since it really wasn't her affiliation. But she decided that it was better than normal workout clothes, and started to pull it on.

"Thanks."

"No problem." Storm watched as Iris pulled up the zipper. "Good, it fits. I wasn't sure. It was one of Jean's."

Iris immediately felt like she was wearing something cursed. "Ah."

"It's all right. Do you have your gun?"

Iris shook her head. "It was up in my room. And I don't want to take any of these guys' since they could be tracked."

Storm nodded. "Smart choice. Do you think you could go through some of the bodies over there and look for a clue as to who they were working for?"

"Sure." Iris felt confined despite the fact that the suit moved easily, and made her way stiffly over to the pile of corpses that Wolverine had left behind. The one at the front was the person they'd said acted like captain. But they were also right in that he looked identical to the others. Turning him onto his back, Iris searched his pockets, unable to find anything until she reached inside an inner breast pocket to find a communicator with a dragon emblem.

It was all she could do not to throw it away. Instead, she brought it over to Storm.

"Found something?"

"Yes." Iris held out the communicator. "These men worked for Lucas Toverdoktor."

Storm looked up sharply. "One of yours?"

Iris grimaced. "Yes. Storm, I swear—if this attack was targeted at me, I will never—"

"It's all right, Iris. I'm starting to think that this is bigger than it seems."

Iris had been distracted by the impact that the one dragon had had on her. "Really? Why?"

"No contact from SHIELD, no incoming aid. Nothing." Their attention was distracted by Bobby waving them over to the gate, where the mutants were gathered, and they started moving over to him. "Don't you think we'd have heard _something_ by now?" Iris was about to respond when a muted explosion could be heard in the distance. It was followed by a screeching metallic crash a minute later. Silence fell over the mutants in the clearing, and the all nervously looked to Storm for instructions, even Logan.

"This is bad," muttered Storm. "Everyone, move it!"

Though they couldn't see any imminent danger, they heeded the warning in her voice and darted into the cover of the trees.


	9. Chapter 8

_Fifteen Months Ago, Manhattan_

"You're dead, Rivers."

"Oh yeah? You're about to eat your words. Prepare to be annihilated."

"The only people about to be annihilated are you and the rest of your posse."

"I guess there's only one way to settle this, then, isn't there? Troops! _Attack!_"

"You guys take your games _way_ too seriously," said Jewel, sitting on the floor with Bill Bryson's _A Short History of Nearly Everything_ open on her lap.

Iris ignored her. "Squad A, attack pattern Delta!" She was leaning forward in her chair, fingers dancing over her keyboard as she commanded the Blue Team. Nick sat behind her monitor as he led the Red Team into battle against her, and he leaned over where she could see him, grinning.

"You should really switch up your tactics, Rivers, 'cause I already know how to deal with them." He turned back to his screen, pulling his microphone closer to his mouth. "Men, defense Delta!"

"_Roger that!"_ The voice came out of his headset, but Iris could faintly hear Chett's shout from where he had his PC set up in the room over, followed quickly by an angry "_And women!_" from Lena, who was on her laptop, next to Chett.

Nick was grinning for a few minutes as he watched his people moving into position, before his expression of triumph melted into a horrified gape. "That's not what you did last time!"

Iris tried and failed to contain a smug smirk. "Switch up my tactics, eh?"

In a couple of minutes, the battlefield had been wiped, and their screens flashed with: BLUE TEAM WINS, which earned groans from the room over and cheers from across the hall. Roth was the first person to run into the room, long brown hair flying, as Iris was getting up from her computer. "This is why I always go team Iris!" he said, offering his fist to her for a bump. "No offense, man, but she knows how to command!"

As Iris smiled and pounded it, Lena stuck her dark-skinned head into the room, glaring at Nick. "Maybe you should take some lessons from her, dude." Chett appeared in the doorway above her, moaning about all the gold he was going to have to spend on armor repairs. Jeremy was the last person to look in, with a quiet, "Pizza's here, guys."

As they sat around the cleared table a moment later, pizzas opened and steaming on the table, Nick had finally gotten over his defeat. "But seriously, how are you so good at command?"

Iris thought about the SHIELD command training class that she'd attended that morning. "Nowhere particular. Someone else can take a turn, next time." She reclined on the couch with bottle of root beer, enjoying the normality of the scene before her. Roth was arguing with Lena about what swords would be the most useful in a fight, one-handed, two, or hand-and-a-halfers. Jeremy was getting pizza grease all over his dusky skin as he listened to Jewel going on about the situations in which psychology would or wouldn't work. Chett had fallen asleep in his cup of Mountain Dew, after a small lament of the lack of effect that caffeine had on him. Iris loved her little group of geeks. After the clock had ticked eleven, Lena stood up.

"All right, guys, we all know why we're assembled here. Roth, stop stacking chips on Chett's head, you'll only make a mess. Now, today is the day that we ring in the New Year together, but midnight is also the time that something else very important happens. And that is that our friend Nicholas Castle turns nineteen."

"My man!" cheered Roth, and Chett woke up suddenly in a shower of fried potato.

Lena gave him a severe look, before continuing. "But we're going to celebrate Nick first, and you know why? He's way more important than the turning of the Earth." She raised her glass. "Let's hear it for Nick!"

"Hey!" they all cheered as they clinked their drinks together, and though Nick was red in the face, he was grinning widely. Roth brought out a splendidly decorated cake, covered in chocolate in all different shades.

"Enjoy it, dude, it took forever!" Roth dusted off his hands. "It's got enough chocolate to make a cow's heart explode!"

They all dined on cake as they passed Nick his gifts. Jeremy had given him the new _Mercenary Guild _game, while Jewel had given him a satirical novel about a king and a peasant switching positions for a month. Chett had contributed a new gaming mouse, Lena a few nice shirts because he "dressed like a blind hobo", and Roth…

"A Swiss army knife with a potato masher attachment?"

"I modified it," Roth said proudly, puffing out his chest.

"Thanks a ton, man." Nick picked up the last parcel, which had fallen to the bottom of the pile due to its small, flat shape. He glanced up at Iris before carefully pulling off the wrappings, eyes widening as they finally fell away. It was a leather-bound journal, but old, cracking and peeling in a few places. He undid the clasp holding it shut and let it fall open, the pages yellowed and slightly worn around the edges. "It's blank!" he said excitedly.

"All yours," replied Iris.

"Where on Earth did you get this?"

_Training mission in the Alps, _she thought. It had been a gift from a hermit who had been reported by the villagers for his insane ravings about giant spiders. SHIELD had interfered, discovered that there were indeed enormous arachnids that had been feeding off or radiation from a nearby military base, and exterminated the rabid things. That had been an odd trip. But she only said, "At the back of a bookstore in Queens. It seemed right up your alley."

"This is _awesome._" He wrapped it back up and placed it on top of everything else. "Thanks a billion, guys."

After that, they'd played Bananagrams until the New Year came, whereupon they toasted and finally began to disperse. Jeremy drove Chett home, since he was falling asleep, while Jewel and Roth departed for their respective dorms. Iris stayed behind to help clean up Lena's place, since she had no SHIELD obligations the next day. Nick also lagged behind, probably since he felt responsible for the mess. Lena tried to shoo him away ("It's your birthday, go enjoy it"), but he stood immovable. Once everything was tidy, Iris turned to find her coat, and found it missing from its peg, calling down the hall "Were Jeremy and Roth making a fort out of the coats again?"

"Yes." She looked around; Nick was behind her, handing over her coat. "And Chett was sleeping in it. I think they did it while the three of us lugged the PCs upstairs."

"Slackers." Iris donned the cloak and wound her scarf around her neck. "So, got anything planned for tomorrow?" She realized what that sounded like, and added, "To celebrate?"

If Nick noticed the slip, he didn't let on. "I think my dad wants me to come by his apartment. It'll be nice to see him, and my sister and my Grandma."

"Awesome. Have a great time."

"I will."

Iris looked down to put her gloves on, and when she looked back up, Nick was still there, looking at her. He realized what he was doing and flushed, quickly opening the door. "Happy New Year, Iris."

"Uh—"

The door clicked shut, and Iris could hear him practically dashing down the stairs.

"You really need to date him, girl." Lena had come out of the living room, where she'd been taking the cards from a collapsed house and putting them back in the deck box. Now she had her fists on her hips, giving Iris a disapproving glare. "He's head over heels for you."

"I can't, Lena, I've got a—"

"Thing? Yeah, I've heard all about it. But you gotta realize that sometimes things don't work out. And when that happens, it's perfectly fine to move on. You _both_ have to realize that, but I'm not sure who'll get it done first." She shook her head. "You should get home. It's late."

As she walked through the snow, Iris saw revelers in the streets, drinking and laughing, coming from or flocking to the commotion in Times Square. And in the city that never emptied, never slept, for the first time, Iris began to wish that she were alone.


	10. Chapter 9

_Present_

Despite the fact that houses had begun to appear alongside the road, there was still no sign of any human life. They stood at the end of the road, milling around the stop sign, as Bobby and Peter returned from pounding on the door of the last building they'd encountered.

"Nothing." Bobby froze the mailbox to mark the absence, and looked back at the rows of equally frosted boxes. "Do you think that they were attacking _civilians_?"

"No one was attacking anyone," said Marie, dejectedly kicking over a tulip. "There's no sign of a struggle anywhere. Whatever happened, it happened peacefully."

"Maybe the government evacuated people," Iris suggested. "They might've gotten wind of our attack and pulled people out."

"Maybe," said Storm. "But I still can't get any kind of signal, not even satellite. There's something a lot bigger going on."

Herding along a crowd of kids, they were going a lot slower than they'd intended. The sun was already beginning to go down, and they hadn't even reached the outskirts of the city of Westchester. "Think we should stop for the night?" Iris asked.

"And camp where?" Bobby sounded genuinely curious, but Iris shot him a look.

"We've got our choice of houses." Iris gestured around her. "It's not that hard to figure out."

"These houses aren't ours!"

Iris knew that Bobby had been through almost as much as she had, but she could barely contain a smile. "They aren't exactly being used at the moment, are they? Storm?"

Before Storm could say anything, Logan started up the path leading to the nearest house. He tried the doorknob, and when that didn't work, kicked the door in. He peered inside, then shrugged and disappeared. Bobby looked exasperated, but Iris hopped the fence and followed Logan.

Everything was in place, as if everyone in the house had disappeared in the middle of their daily lives. Legos were scattered on the ground, a newspaper open on the table. As Iris eyed the front hallway, she noted that the jackets and shoes were missing. Logan was sniffing around the living room. "They ain't here. They ain't been here for at least a few days. And there's already a good layer of dust on everything."

Iris used a finger to wipe the specks from a photograph hanging on the wall, depicting a family. Two mothers, a teenage boy, a young girl, and a baby swaddled in a blanket, all smiling out from an oaken frame. "The attacks," Iris said with realization. "They started days ago. But something's been wrong with the communication; that's why we didn't hear about it, and why SHIELD hasn't been responding."

"Hasn't SHIELD got backups, or something? Secure waves?"

"Yes," Iris replied softly. "We do. We tried them."

As the impact of her message sank in, Logan sprawled onto the couch. "When we find your high and mighty organization, they could use some pest control." He then closed his eyes. "Wake me up if you need me."

Iris turned around to see Storm and Bobby in the doorway. "We should get the kids into the houses. Make sure you've got someone in each—a telepath, or a teleporter, or someone who can get word around quickly in case of an attack. I'll take Bobby on first watch, and we can set up a rotation from there. That okay with you, Storm?" When Storm nodded, Iris continued. "And tell everyone to keep the lights off."


	11. Chapter 10

The next day, after eating the leftover canned goods from the neighborhood, the mutants departed. They were finally exiting the more rural areas, finding bigger and bigger cities. It was noon before they finally entered Yonkers, hoping to find some sign of human life or SHIELD contact. They found nothing.

"We're going too slow," said Iris.

Storm looked back at the group of kids, very subdued, but slowing down to accommodate the younger children. "I know."

"And I take it you also know that Lucas probably knows where we are? And is tracking us?"

"Yes. I'm counting on getting help from your friends at SHIELD before he finally attacks, provided that they haven't been smoked out as well."

"Why hasn't he attacked, do you think?"

"Either he's still mustering forces, or wants to make his final move quick and clean. He's taking his time and making us uneasy at the same time. It's a good tactic, really."

"What's your play if we get attacked?"

"Protect the children."

Iris tried to imagine the city during the day. It was beautiful and sunny, but not too hot, and people would probably be outdoors, enjoying the sun. The air would be quiet, save for the hum of insects and soft chatter. The pancake house on the corner would be venting the smell of bacon and coffee. There might be a car sitting at the stoplight, subwoofers shaking the pavement. But the entire town lay empty and still as a snowy field.

Which is why Iris's head rang with alarm when she noticed movement in an upper floor window.

"Storm—"

"I saw it. Logan, get the X-Men into a circle around the kids." Logan was already moving as she gave the order, and they had formed a defensive ring in the middle of the street before doors began to fly open and more of the same mercenary troops flowed out.

It didn't take long for them to be surrounded. The X-Men were ready to fight, but they knew getting out of the city would be nearly impossible. Enemies blocked the streets, and they were largely outnumbered, with a group of children to protect. But Lucas's troops just watched, weapons primed, as though they were waiting for orders. Iris looked through them until she found the acting captain, and saw him look down at his watch then listen for orders from his communicator. _Five minutes to go 'til reinforcements. Damn Higgins had to go and move the curtain._

Iris shot a look over to Storm, doing her best to communicate telepathically. _They're waiting for backup. Five minutes. I don't think they think they can take on a squad of mutants. _

But the captain noticed the look, and apparently knew who Iris was. "You there!" He began to stride forward, and the mutants tensed, but he pointed his weapon at Iris. "Step away from the others."

"Or?"

He looked at the outer ring and realized that any of them would be able to avoid a bullet. Or stop it mid-flight, in Iris's case. He adjusted his aim to point into the space between Iris and Storm. "Or I shoot a kid."

Iris was fairly confident in her ability to go Neo. "I'd like to see you try."

"You want to take that chance, girl?"

Realizing that even just the firing of the shot might start a battle, Iris stepped forwards. Storm sidled right to fill the gap, tensed like a spring, but the captain only gestured to one of his men. "Get that thingie—the damper."

_Neurotic damper,_ Iris silently corrected in irritation. The device Lucas created to suppress her powers. Iris started to look around for the best way out. If Storm still wanted to try and escape, it would be best to do it just as the reinforcements began to arrive and people were still moving. There was the large, main street that they'd been walking down. Solid wall of shops to their left, but branching off to their right was Fifth. It was smaller than Main, and would be easier to bottleneck. But as Iris tried to see how far the road went, she realized that there were people moving down it. Quickly, and quietly. If they were reinforcements, why would they be moving...quietly?

There was a gunshot down the street that attracted the attention of nearly all the mercenaries, so that few of them noticed their captain crumple to the ground at Iris's feet. Iris recognized the voice that was yelling at them from the end of the street. It was a familiar voice, friendly. "Duck and run, people!"

Agent Hill.

Iris whirled and kicked the nearest soldier in the head, landing the blow right between his eyes, which promptly crossed and closed as he crumpled to the ground. Picking up his weapon and turning back, Iris could see the rest of his troops turning to combat what appeared to be an entire SHIELD platoon. She quickly pulled her swords into her hands and leapt into the melee.

The battle was short. Lucas's men weren't stupid, but they weren't trained against SHIELD agents and a horde of angry mutants. Iris saw Wolverine pass her by in a flash of silver, Storm soaring past her, leaving a flickering trail of lightning. At one point, she was turning to face a surprise assailant when he fell to the ground with an arrow between his shoulder blades. She looked up and received a nod from Hawkeye at his rooftop perch.

The battle was almost won when they began to hear footsteps.

Not the scattered wanderings of a crowd; a dreadful, monotonous march crunching dully from around the corner. The remaining mercenaries began to retreat. Several of the younger mutant kids tried to run after them, but Agent Hill yelled "Stop!" in such a commanding voice that they all froze, staring at each other, too close to move. Storm beckoned them back behind the line of SHIELD soldiers.

They all tensed as they watched the street corner.

As soldiers began emerge onto the street, Iris strained to identify them. More mercenaries? No. They were all identically dressed, in grey military uniforms. Not US military, nor any army that she could recognize. All carrying huge weapons, and welcoming Lucas's mercenaries into their midst.

"Shit," said Hill, clicking on her earpiece. "We're outnumbered. Start getting the mutants into the escape tunnels. Squad B, you're on rearguard for the rest of us. Once the forces are in, scatter and meet up at rendezvous hatch four. Stand by."

The platoon paused halfway down the street, feet stamping to an unnervingly sudden stop. The SHIELD ranks stood firm and determined, and the two forces surveyed each other for a long minute before the enemy ranks began to ripple as a figure walked through. He emerged from the front, long black coat designating him as leader, but his helmet and goggles covered his face. He surveyed his opposition before shaking his head.

"A shame. I was hoping to see an old friend of mine. But I'm sure I will soon enough."

Iris's brain sped, struggling to place his accent in its current state of battle-exhaustion. Then, the man removed his mask and to reveal a horrifying face, and uttered two words that sent ice running through Iris's veins.

_"Heil Hydra!_"


	12. Chapter 11

"Iris, you need to get out of here," hissed Hill.

Iris surveyed the Hydra ranks and collapsed her swords, drawing her gun instead. "Let's pretend I'm squad B."

"Me too." They both swiveled to see Storm taking off her gloves, eyes already cloudy. "Everyone else's below ground. Why aren't they attacking us?"

"That's not why they're here," guessed Iris. "They came to announce themselves, not to destroy us. They know that we have the defensive and home field advantages."

"Seems pretty pointless to me," Storm muttered dubiously, but she cut off as the Red Skull spoke again.

"Now that we have more privacy, we can speak of more important matters. I must admit, Ororo Munroe, you are quite the leader. You choose your people wisely. We shot your Blackbird from the sky, and what hostages have we to show from it?" He spread his arms. "None. But it matters not. They arrived too late." He lowered his arms again, and clasped his hands behind his back as his lips lifted into a smirk. "And the man containing the consciousness of Charles Xavier is now within our possession."

The SHIELD ranks rippled—_everyone_ had heard of the Professor, but word was that he'd died. Iris shot a look over to Storm, but the woman was focused on the Skull. "What do you want with him?"

"Everything, my dear. But that's not why I'm here. I understand that you have a girl among your ranks. A telepath, named Iris."

Before Storm could say anything else, Iris stood up. "What's it to you?"

Storm put a hand on Iris's shoulder. "Are you telling me that these attacks have been over her? Why do you want her?"

The Red Skull chuckled. "Again, you jump too quickly to conclusions that don't add up. I want nothing with the girl Iris. My aims are much larger. And the attack on your mansion, while organized by the one who holds your leader, were for the simple purpose of giving you nowhere to go. I'm simply passing on the message from another. He offers the Professor for the girl. And he grows impatient. "

"LTD," Iris said softly. She turned to Storm. "I'm going."

"No," Storm countered sharply. "You're not."

"Seconded." Hill didn't look up from the barrel of her gun, trained on the Red Skull. "We need you here. We can get Professor Xavier out, but we'll need you to do it. And you know what?" Iris saw Hill's trigger finger twitch. "I think I'm going to screw SHIELD protocol. I'm taking the shot."

The shot echoed like infinity in Iris's ears, but when she looked back out at the enemy lines, the Skull was still standing. The bullet was stopped in midair, hovering halfway between the two forces.

"How rude of you," came a deep, cultured voice, that spoke to Iris of old books and chess games. Another player emerged from a side street, utterly alone, but terrifying enough. His cape billowed behind him while his eyes burned with satisfaction beneath his helm. He first addressed the Red Skull, with a "Pardon my lateness." Then he turned to Hill. "A truce is still a truce, even if undeclared, Miss Hill. You'd do well to learn the art of gentlemanly combat." The bullet dropped to the ground with a metallic clatter. Hill's eyes widened as her gun jerked out of her hands and spun around to face her, new bullet sliding into the chamber. "Or perhaps I should teach you a lesson."

There was an obviously audible click as the bullet slid back out. Then the cartridge fell out of the gun and clattered to the pavement.

"Magneto," said Iris. "You are one crappy teacher."

"Ah, so we meet the psychic," Erik Lensherr gave Iris a once-over before shrugging. "But you've yet to be tested on the plains of war, Miss Rivers. Just how many weapons do you think you can stop?"

Up and down the measly SHIELD line, feeling smaller and smaller by the instant, weapons started to slide out of holsters, locking and loading, barrels pressed against their owners' heads, including Iris's own. Magneto smirked as he turned to the Red Skull. "Shall we, then?"

The Skull nodded with a curled lip. "I grow tired of this play."

The agents either ducked or fell bleeding as their pistols fired, and the bedlam began.

The SHIELD forces had no choice but to scatter. Their own weapons were useless, and the Hydra ranks were advancing, firing upon them. Iris saw two nearby men go down under gunfire, but stopped a bullet before it hit a third and sent it spiraling back into the Hydra crowd at full velocity. Magneto had risen into the sky and was hurling any nearby metal—lamp posts, trash cans, cars—at the retreating forces. He'd nearly hit a retreating Agent Hill when he was forced to spin out of the way to avoid a streak of lightning.

"Erik!" Storm yelled over the whistling of her wind. "What happened to you? Why are you doing this!?"

"There always comes a time, my dear, when you are forced to choose your own survival over the facades of nobility and chivalry. I had an opportunity and I took it, and once again, you have placed yourself on the losing side!"

Storm had to shoot up to avoid the mailbox streaking towards her, but looped back around and tackled Magneto onto a nearby roof.

Iris psychic-slammed two of her pursuers into the alley walls stumbling as fast as she could while supporting one of her fellow SHIELD officers, who'd been hit with a bullet and was dangerously close to passing out. There were still three Hydras stomping down the alley behind her, but Iris was quickly becoming exhausted. She toppled some recycling bins into their path, but knew that they weren't going to slow the soldiers down much. "Where's rendezvous hatch four?" Iris whispered urgently.

The woman coughed, and a little more blood trickled out of the wound in her side, but she still managed to croak out, "Junction of Main and Seventh. But you'll want to go underground somewhere else, and then—" another cough, "—get there. Confuse the Hydras. There should be another hatch coming up on your right. Three alleyways down."

Iris was confused as to why there were so many of these "hatches" around, but decided not to ask. Her partner was losing blood quickly, but she couldn't afford to stop to give her a bandage. Instead, she used what psychic power she had left to levitate the both of them and fly to the third alleyway on the right. She hit the ground at a run, but couldn't see anything that looked out of the ordinary.

"On your left," the agent said, voice a barely audible murmur. "The grey brick beneath the window."

Most of the bricks looked pretty greyish to Iris, but she found the one being mentioned and slammed her hand against it twice. The window lit up, needing something—a retina scan. One blue flash later, a hole slid open in the bricks, and Iris was readying to slide the agent inside when she noticed something. The woman's eyes were open, but she wasn't breathing. Iris pressed her ear to the woman's chest, but couldn't register a heartbeat. The body was still warm, but she was dead.

It was in that instance that Iris made a choice. With her powers, and her training, she might've had a chance to save the woman. It would have meant being caught by the Hydras, but the agent may still survive the attack. Others would claim that for Iris to let herself be caught would be absurd, that Iris had no choice but to run, but Iris knew better. There was always a choice. And Iris chose to obey protocol and disregard the dead so as to not endanger the living. Iris could hear the Hydras were searching each alleyway, but Iris drawing closer. She quickly closed the woman's eyes and whispered, "Thank you," before levitating the body to the end of the alleyway. The Hydras would assume that she dropped it in order to run faster. Instead, Iris slid into the tunnel and watched as it closed behind her.

Iris grasped her way through the darkness, hand coming away from the wall wet and smeared with dirt. She barely had any idea where the junction of Seventh and Main was supposed to be, but could sense some mental activity down the tunnels. She was moving in that direction when she realized that those weren't the only people underground. There was also someone behind her.

It took two seconds for Iris to have them pinned to the walls, but the person immediately melted through her grip, walking straight through Iris's body and elbowing her in the head. Iris fell to the ground, but rolled to avoid the next blow, springing up and holding up her hands. "Kitty! Kitty, it's me!"

"Iris?" Iris was alarmed. Kitty looked much worse for wear, exhausted, frazzled, and even scraped and bruised, which should be nearly impossible for a phaser. Kitty had to be really tired for her phasing to malfunction. "Thank God. Are you with Storm and the others?"

"Well—I'm trying to find them, but they're not far away. How'd you find these tunnels? Where are Kurt and Warren?"

Kitty's shoulders were heaving with exhaustion, and Iris caught her before she fell. But Kitty still managed to keep talking. "I don't know, I was just phasing and I—fell into it. Kurt and Warren are just a little ways behind. But Warren's hurt. All three of us got out of the Blackbird when it blew; I phased, Kurt teleported, Warren flew; but Warren got hit. Kurt's helping him."

Before Kitty had finished talking, Iris saw Kurt limp around the corner, supporting a deathly pale Warren. He looked up and saw Iris, muttering, "Thank you, Lord."

Iris could see that the entire group was on their last legs. She addressed Kurt. "Can you take him a little farther?"

Kurt nodded.

"Then come on. I'll get you to the others."


	13. Chapter 12

_One Year Ago, Central Park _

"…and then Hyata finally decides that it'd be best for the people and kills her father so she can take the throne and make peace with Gorgerno without dishonoring her father's name, you know, since she's a bastard. I thought that it would be a good plot twist as well as a representation of how certain political powers climb on top of those who helped them rise in order to finally get to the spot of power."

"Wow." Iris was impressed. Nick had just given her a summary of a book that he'd planned to write, the inspiration for which he apparently gotten at about midnight. He'd sat up planning until four o'clock, then couldn't bear it any longer and had called around. Iris was the only one not too grumpy to answer. Even then, the sun's rosy glow was only just illuminating the cloud-scattered skyline.

"What do you think?" Looking over at him, Iris was almost amused at the worry filling his slate-grey eyes. But she knew how much it meant to him.

"I feel like it could be the next _Game of Thrones_. I like how you've got a female protagonist. Have you written anything?"

He was holding a notebook and was tapping his pen vigorously against the paper as he walked. "No. But it's all coming together." He finally stuck his pen back behind his ear and shoved the notepad in his back pocket. "How long are you going to be staying in Manhattan?"

Iris had only just returned from Malibu, hailed excitedly by all of her friends, but she wasn't planning on staying for too long. She had to get to Westchester. And she had tons of other places to go, people to recruit… but she was enjoying her time. Ever since her cut-off with Loki, she'd been feeling more lonely than she'd been on her own in the circus.

"Couple weeks, maybe."

"Helping with Stark Tower at all?"

"Just a tad bit. But it was mostly design that I worked on."

"We all really miss you back here." The sun was rising in the sky, but the watery yellow morning light was broken by wisps of dark cloud. Nick had one of those remarkable faces that changed mood entirely when in shadow or in light. "Are you ever going to move back for good?"

The sunlight move past his face and left it cast into sad shadow. But she still had to be honest. "I don't know. I work all over. I don't know if I'll ever actually have a hometown."

They walked a little farther, but the sun didn't return, the grey sky darkening instead. A piercing breeze ruffled the trees, carrying with it a wet, metallic scent, and Iris looked up. "Was there rain in the forecast?"

"Do you think that I checked the weather this morning?" Nick looked up and was immediately hit in the eye with a raindrop. "Ow!"

"Come on!" Iris grabbed him by the arm and together, they ran down the pathway as rain began to pour out of the sky. In a few seconds Iris's clothes were drenched, and Nick's usually spiky brown hair was plastered to his head. They came to a fork in the path, and Iris couldn't even read the sign for the rain running into her eyes.

"Hey." Nick pulled her off the path under one of the more dense trees, which lessened the rainfall, and they looked out at the landscape as it became more and more blurred. Iris wiped a hand across her eyes and wrung out her hair.

"That escalated quickly."

"Tell me about it." Nick suddenly looked panicked for a second and dug his notebook out of his back pocket, flipping through the pages. He blew out a relieved sigh. "Thank God it didn't get wet. All of my ideas are in this thing."

Iris looked at it. "Maybe I should've gotten something with a waterproof cover."

His face fell. "It loses the unconventionality of the thing. Besides, I was lucky this once, right?"

"Mm-hm." Iris looked in the other direction to hide her smile. She'd been using her powers to keep the rain away from his notebook, because she knew how much it meant to him. "Luck doesn't last forever."

"What does last forever?"

"Excuse me?"

Nick was staring in concentration at the bark of the tree, looking at it, but not seeing it. "People always say that things don't last forever. But is there anything that actually does?"

In the several seconds that Iris took to think, the rain picked up and started thundering down in soaking torrents. She stared out into the misty grey curtain and then looked back. "A thought. Anything material will eventually deteriorate. But things that can be passed on—stories, songs, ideas—can last forever as long as there's still someone to tell it."

She looked back and saw Nick staring at her and before she could help herself, she'd read his mind.

_I wish I could kiss her right now_.

She did her best to control her blush, because he didn't know she could read minds, and it needed to stay that way. But she suddenly realized how stupid she felt, idly standing there beneath the tree . "You know, I should probably go. I've got stuff I need to do, and a little rain isn't going to hurt me."

"Oh." Nick looked surprised, and more than a little disappointed. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." The sound of falling rain filled the silence before Iris spoke again. "Write that book for me, Nick. I think this is your big break."

"Are you leaving?" He meant it in more ways than one.

"Yes."

"Then good luck."

Iris didn't reply, instead turning and running into the rain and wind. She could have made a moisture-free bubble around herself, but she let the water run down her face and the wind cut through her shirt. When she turned the corner, she could still see him standing there alone, through a curtain of rain, underneath the oak tree. But she continued running.

* * *

End of Volume 1: Days Past.

* * *

Thanks to all of you that have read this far. As you can probably tell, this is going to be a very long story. I have yet to write Volume 2, and will be doing so while I'm updating my other story (Gotham Circus, which I'm writing simultaneously) and so won't be posting for quite a while. If you're interested in reading farther, please give the story a follow. And, as always, reviews are appreciated.


	14. Chapter 14

Hey, anybody who's interested. Finally getting around to continuing this story. Less cheesy romance, more excitement, I promise. Have fun.

* * *

Iris blinked against the harsh sunlight. After travelling through tunnels for two days straight, the normally pleasant light felt like fire on her skin. But the fresh air was heaven. She took time to suck in a lungful before turning back and pulling Warren out of the manhole.

They were now in New York City. Agent Hill had explained that the first assaults had come days before the mansion was attacked. They were mostly mercenary, also under command of Lucas Toverdokter, but some of them had probably been Hydra. All communication efforts had been jammed. Manhattan was under siege.

The tunnel system had been designed for this situation, and a select crew of SHIELD agents had gotten to work digging in the direction of Westchester, to try and get word to the mansion. A scouting party had reported the destruction of the mansion, and they'd set up hatches in the downtown area for the evacuation of the mutants. They'd known of Toverdokter's forces, and that the mutants were under constant hostile surveillance. They chose to wait until the city was reached to pull them out. They'd had no idea of Hydra's or Magneto's existence until now.

As for the rest of the area, most people had been evacuated. Some of the areas closer to New York had been invaded and occupied by soldiers—now confirmed to be Hydra—and the people had all been locked into their homes. SHIELD had sent in agents to sneak from door to door, recruiting volunteers to fight—and, in some cases, drafting them. Right now, the attacks were very concentrated, but everyone knew that if NYC was taken, the country would be next.

"And it's a perfect setup, really," said Hill as she'd explained, shining her flashlight at the dripping walls. "They've basically held Manhattan hostage. Said they'd begin their final attacks if there was any offensive movement from us or from the outside."

"But you directly attacked LTD's forces. Word will get back."

Hill had shone her light onto Iris's face, before turning away again. "I know. SHIELD knows. But we're ready now. We decided it was worth it."

Storm was more practical. "Any idea what they were waiting for?"

"Guesses. Backup, maybe."

"From who?"

"We really don't want that question answered."

The three of them were near the head of the group, Logan just a little ways behind. The group had been instructed to keep quiet, but their murmurs bounced from the walls and filled the tunnels with echoing chatter. Most of the X-Men were set as rear guard, with some SHIELD agents. The rest of the platoon was guarding the front. Iris felt bad for the ex-X-Woman Rogue, now Marie. Iris could tell that she wanted to be with Bobby, but Storm had put her down and ordered her to stay in the middle. She was human, untrained. The most vulnerable of them.

Hill looked back, before saying, "You still never told me what happened to those three that just came in. Kurt and Warren and Kitty. Where were you sending them?"

"To check on the Professor," said Storm. "But they never made it, and now he's with the enemy."

Hill looked cautiously from Storm to Iris. "The Professor."

Storm had explained the situation to Iris as they'd walked, so Iris took the liberty of relating the story to Hill. "He's still alive, Hill. When he died last time, he transferred his consciousness into this hospitalized man—one without higher brain function. He's been rehabilitating there ever since the Mutant Reformation, since his lucid periods are still sketchy. Something about two people not fitting into one brain."

"You should have told us," said Hill, accusingly. "We could have protected him. When did you find out?"

"Moira told us a few weeks after Jean's death. Apparently the Professor wanted to stay out of it, but Dr. McTaggart couldn't keep it hidden. And I'm sorry, Agent Hill, but we weren't really in the mood to tell the government anything, at the time."

Seeing nothing good coming out of a continuation of the conversation, Iris interrupted them. "Hill, any word from Tony?"

"None. And since it's now been over a week since the loss of communication, he's probably gotten suspicious. Either he can't get to us or was attacked himself."

Iris's mouth twisted. "Comforting."

"As always. Love the suit, by the way."

"Ahah. Ahahahah. I'll get a new one in Manhattan, provided we ever get there."

And now Iris was finally home. Or at least, the closest thing that she had to one. She helped the last person out of the tunnel—Iceman—and heaved the cover back over the manhole. Finally able to look up—and finally wanting to—she was greeted with an incredible sight. She was on Wall Street, for the first time in her life. And it was jam packed with soldiers.

There was the customary squad protecting the manholes, but the rest of the street was clearly an army camp. It was lined with tents, where people—SHIELD agents, army, navy, air force, and basically-dressed folk who had to be the volunteers—went about their business, talking, eating, sleeping, and getting their stuff in order. Stuff meaning things. Things meaning weapons.

Iris could see armed soldiers strolling through the camp, departing in platoons down the different streets, where tactical tents, training areas, and vehicles were scattered. The air was filled with mechanical whirring, chatter, and harsh shouting, but for New York, it was chillingly quiet. No honking, no one talking on the phone, no rude cab drivers yelling at each other in the streets. The noise here was controlled.

She rubbed her nose, already growing stiff in the cool breeze, and surveyed the scene until Hill called her over to one of the SUVs parked nearby. "Hop in."

Iris gestured to where the main body of the group was retreating, led by another agent. "I was going to help Storm get the students settled."

"Director Fury wants to talk to you immediately."

Iris frowned. "Goody. Love a chat with Fast and Furious." She pulled the door shut but rolled down the window and continued to look out, up into the sky. It was the only thing that hadn't changed. Then she noticed guardsmen positioned on top of some of the nearby buildings and sighed, putting the window back up. "Is the entire island like this?"

"Yes. Most of the vehicles and troops are stationed around the outside. Personnel quarters are just inside of that, getting less and less experienced the farther in you get. The civilians that got trapped here are clustered in buildings towards the center. Since we don't know how long we'll be under siege, Central Park is being converted into farming space. And since it's at the center of the island anyway, headquarters is still headquarters."

"Who else is here?"

"Luckily, most of us were here when the strikes came. Barton, as you saw back in Westchester, though he's still tracking Toverdokter."

"I noticed he didn't come back with us."

"Romanoff is still in Manhattan, she was recalled from her mission with Barton to help with things here. Coulson and Sitwell are working overtime at home base. Ant-man and Wasp are just back from recon, so you'll see them soon. You'll also get to meet Captain Rogers. He's training some of the new recruits."

"Any word on Bruce Banner?"

"None. Last I heard, he was in India, and it's probably best that he stay there. Anyway, your sister's here too. And Spidey."

"Good. So we've got a lot of firepower." Iris's hopes were starting to rise. "We've also got the entire force of the X-Men. But we're going to need to send out a special team to get the Professor out."

"Yes. But we need to get onto making plastic weapons pronto. We still have an arsenal stored from the Period of Mutant Unrest, but we didn't think we'd have to use them again. Here." Hill stopped outside of the SHIELD facility, the one that Steve Rogers had been kept in before he'd woken up. "This is headquarters now. Fury should be inside. And, uh…" She lowered her voice. "I know you haven't had the best history, but try to keep it quiet, okay? We have enough to do as it is."

"I'm good, Hill. Thanks for the ride."

"Orders are orders." She watched Iris exit the vehicle and enter the facility, before shaking her head. This was gettting way too out of hand. All of these people gathered in one place; X-Men, Avengers, Spider-man, Fury—it had to work. Because if it didn't work out, it was going to destroy them all.


End file.
